Rejected Star Wars Strikes Back!

Well, that turned out to be a bit longer than I had planned on. It’s been four long years since my last look at the “rejected” concepts that my former co-workers and I came up with when we were working on promotions for the launch of Star Wars: Episode One, The Phantom Menace. And it has easily been the most read article we’ve had here at AFi, bouncing around everywhere from Boing Boing and Gizmodo to the official Star Wars blog and Wired, culminating in an interview with NPR about how it all went down.

But the concepts I showed were only a handful of the ideas that we developed. Admittedly, I cherry-picked the best concepts for that first blog; what I feature down below may cause you to roll your eyes a few times. But let me back up and recap the assignment: I was working for a promotional merchandise company when we got the chance to pitch ideas for a few items that would be made to tie-in to Pepsi’s big Episode One promotions. Until we actually won the job, we could only use things from the original trilogy to concept with. If they liked the idea, we could later try and make it fit with the new movie once they let us see a storyline and artwork. We didn’t have a budget, or even know what the items might be used for (part of the pitch was for us to tell them how to use the merchandise). So we could be making something that cost $.25 to manufacture (say, an on-pack for a Pepsi bottle of can) or we might make something for $300 (a “dealer loader”, that it, a display in store that the store owner would keep or raffle off after the promotion is over).

We came up with hundreds of concepts over about 4-5 rounds of pitching. I and a co-worker, Steve Ross, were the big Star Wars fans of the office, but everyone pitched in. Halfway through the pitch we hired noted comic artists Kerry Gammill and Keith Wilson, so you’ll see that some concept art is definitely better than others. And for all that is here, there is still a good number of concepts that I can’t find the artwork for – in 13 years you tend to lose a few things. As it is, these presentation boards are pretty big and are too big to scan; I had to take photos of each one and clean those up, hence one big reason it’s taken me so long to write this follow up. You can see what the actual boards looked like at right; after we landed the account and created the four life-size characters seen way down below, Lucasfilm was so pleased that we explored making two more characters for the video release: Sebulba and Boss Nass. That exploration didn’t get very far, but I’m not sure if I remember why exactly it was killed. Keep in mind that as I said before, most of these concepts were never seen by Lucasfilm or Pepsi before they got killed at lower levels. So please don’t blame them if your favorite concept never got made.

Anyway, I’m breaking this round up into a few sections, partly because there are some many concepts (and keep in mind this is just a big chunk of what went to final inks and color. We have twice as many rough sketches and written out ideas that didn’t make the cut as we do ones that were presented) and partly to explain each grouping in greater depth. Before I go into the concept I would like to ask one thing: the last blog went around the internet like crazy and keeps coming back every few months as more people discover the designs. But many places that originally grabbed the art didn’t link back here, and now most mentions are unattributed. I have no problem with people sharing these and spreading the word, but I do hate that these are being seen out of context. So if you do grab these or post them somewhere else, please link back to this article. Thanks.

Light Side of the Force/Dark Side of the Force

When we were coming up with all of these concepts pretty much the only thing we had to keep in mind was for everyone to make sure we hit every price point with at least a few ideas, so that we weren’t all concentrating on the big tickets things (which were more fun!). And as guys who immersed themselves in Star Wars, it was less about looking for things to concept about, and more to try and design something that would incent fans, moms, and kids to want to buy some Pepsi to get our merchandise. But occasionally word would come down from the client requesting a specific direction to explore. In the group below, that direction was to show the duality of the light side and dark side of the Force, as embodied by Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. We knew what Anakin looked like because Lucasfilm has released some pics when Jake Lloyd was cast. But outside of that we had no idea how the character would be used in the film, so we hedged our bets by including a few Luke concepts in there. And as you can see, it was stretch for us to try and tie these two characters together in a physical product. Some of these smaller items that Steve Ross did, like the “Time Chamber” were based on technology from Disney’s Haunted Mansion and would have been really cool to see produced. Again, realize when we developed these in 1998, there was very little Star Wars merchandise out there yet. Even the toy line was barely over two years old. So when you see items like the stacking figures that someone eventually made, don’t point out that these exist, instead ask yourself why doesn’t ALL of these concepts exist by now?

Pepsi Specific Concepts

Knowing that we would most likely either be including these with a six-pack of Pepsi, or making a display around carton of Pepsi in stores, we developed a lot of ideas that were very tied in to Pepsi. After all, Pepsi spent nearly one billion dollars for the license, so they wanted to sell a whole lot of soda. (By the way, this is a pretty common practice. For Episode One, Pizza Hut even created a mascot just so she could interact with the Star Wars promotion.) Some of the ideas were based on the fact that the film would open during the Summer (grills, pool toys, etc.), some just traded off functional items that could be made from iconic images like Vader’s facemask. One note on the prequel characters that start showing up in these concepts: are a couple of rounds of pitches, Lucasfilm allowed us to use whatever we found on the internet about Episode One to concept with. Enough information had leaked by that point that we had a good idea of certain characters and vehicles and places. But our artwork was based on detailed descriptions given to us by friends who had seen some of the work being done at ILM. Those descriptions included things like “Gungans don’t wear clothes” and “Jar Jar has dreadlocks and speaks like a Rastafarian”. So please don’t judge our artistic talent by these goofy designs. There were a few really neat items that didn’t make the cut. My team had previously made the Character Cup Toppers for the Star Wars special edition, so for this round we came up with something new: the straws would be lightsabers or laser blasts coming out of guns, and would follow a track that twisted around the inside of the cup. As you turned the cup, the “blade” would extend with the familiar lightsaber ignition noise from a hidden sound chip. We made some engineering prototypes and they worked quite well (and I even sculpted a few mock-ups one afternoon in my cubicle for a last minute meeting!) but in the end the high cost killed them. And being huge toy collectors, we tried to give “hidden value” for fans of the Kenner toys like the Cantina Dispenser. It was going to be scaled to the action figures, so even if you didn’t use it for your drinks you would have an awesome pre-made diorama (much like the Yoda Pencil Sharpener in the section below this one).

Miscellaneous Concepts

Like the last blog, this group is just a whole bunch of random ideas thrown up against the wall to see what sticks. This project was both fun and frustrating. We had a very limited time to make…whatever is was we were going to make. We were working on many different projects at the same time all this was going on, and we had no clear idea of what the client wanted (mainly because the client wasn’t sure, either). So be kind to some of these pieces. The fabric booksock is not our finest hour.

What Was Made

We ended up producing one big idea: the life-size characters that showed up in many stores as part of a Pepsi display, and lots of little ideas. Although some of these were fairly expensive high-end items, like the leather bomber jacket with the Naboo/Federation fighter squadron embroidered patches. The lightsaber flashlight was a great replica of Qui-Gon’s saber, and the first lightsaber made with a belt clip (the resin prototype is shown below; I can’t find a picture of the actual item that was made). The bottle toppers were also finger puppets.

So that’s it for this round, and that is the end of the Pepsi concepts! I have at least two more blogs detailing what it took to actually get everything produced. I’m really hoping to get both finished before San Diego Comic Con this year! And huge props go out to my former buddies in the trenches, who came up with all this stuff and fought to get it made: Steve Ross, Mike Hawkins, Kerry Gammill, Keith Wilson, Laurie Brownlow, Mark Mears, Mike Flecker, Keith DeWaters, Mike Dethloff and Brad Weston.

With 20 years of digital marketing, film development and web design experience, Texas-based webmaster and noted toy historian Jason Geyer oversees digital creative services for a retail marketing agency in his daily life.
A former toy designer, Jason has been part of the online pop culture world for over 20 years, having founded some of the very first toy sites on the web including Raving Toy Maniac, ToyOtter, and Action Figure Insider. Along the way he helped pioneer online coverage of industry events such as San Diego Comic Con, E3, Toy Fair, and CES.

The Yoda backpack was eventually developed and offered for sale, although apparently by another company and with a different design (Yoda’s body is the backpack itself, rather than hanging onto the backpack).

Actually, once the decision was made to go with a big display, there weren’t hat many big impact ideas that would fit. And if you see all the life size characters in movie theaters since then, you can understand how that was a “big impact” idea that worked out very well. (BTW, all of those characters in movie theaters were made by my old CEO, who took this concept and spun a new business out of it).

[…] that were never made that me and my co-workers designed for The Phantom Menace, back in 1998. Go check it out on Action Figure Insider. There’s a link to part one in that article, too. The images below are just a sample of […]

[…] Jason Geyer from action figure insider is no stranger to exposing some rejected toy ideas, and is back with a whole new batch of artwork and photos of what could have been, which you can see right here. […]

[…] Figure Insider has an awesome article and huge image gallery of rejected merchandising ideas for Star Wars Episode 1. While some of it was right to be given the chop, there are a couple of winners on there, and I […]

[…] much everything that gets put in front of him but this post proves otherwise. Jason Geyer from Action Figure Insider vi io9 have released these rather awesome images of Star Wars merchandiseÂ that didn’t quite […]

actually there already is a Yoda Backpack. i have the only one i’ve ever seen though. and the Jedi Advice Yoda was also done as a Yoda Furby that came with an IR enabled lightsabre, you could ask him questions and get a ‘magic eightball’ style peice of random jedi advice when you squeezed his little hand. or he would teach you lightsabre duelling in a sort of ‘simon says’ way. but best of all, get 2 or more yoda furbies together and they would talk to each other, revealing dialogue that they wouldn’t use by themselves! and that’s the two best ever Star wars toys. and i own them. and that makes me a proper jedi. S9

[…] appropriate to take a look at what could have been. That is, what could have been in the kitchen. Action Figure Insider compiled a list of rejected Star Wars paraphernalia. Not surprisingly, there are a few […]

Hey I think that some of those ideas are no worse than the sucessful ideas that are put into production.

I guess, when it comes to business however, the manufacturing company must predict other factors such as cost of production / transportation, demand and likely profit, so not all ideas are equal, even among ideas that are all good.

Personally, from the “bad ideas”, my favorites are the Yoda backpack and the R2D2 thermoflask.

Both that I see as good as any other star wars product on the market.
But there you go, thats business for you.

I am sure all parties were still paid well for their contribution.
cheers.

[…] Itâ€™s even more interesting when the process involves Star Wars. Jason Geyer over at AFI recently shared a handful of ideas that didnâ€™t quite make it into production when he worked on Pepsiâ€™s promotional merchandise for […]

[…] Back in 1998, toy designer and Star Wars fiend Jason Geyer was part of team tasked with pitching promotional merchandise ideas for the upcoming film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. In 2008, Geyer posted a small selection of concepts that were rejected. He recently posted a follow-up of many more rejected concepts. […]

[…] boss, too. Everything on the list is the brainchild of mega-nerd toy designer Jason Geyer, who has a whole blog full of ideas he pitched back when he worked at a promotional merchandise company. It's totally worth exploring, but […]

The Cirencester Salerooms in Gloucestershire, England have an auction on March 16th from a collector of Star Wars memorabila including action figures and vehicles.

The collection was amassed by a single collector over several decades. Conditions range from play-worn to boxed and in near-mint condition.

Among the most attractive lots are some of the original 1978 Star Wars figures by Palitoy of Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi and his arch-nemesis Darth Vader in the original ’12 back’ packs â€“ so called because they featured pictures of the 12 original action figures on the reverse of the card mounting.

Other stand-out Star Wars lots include a boxed circa 1979 Millennium Falcon and a circa 1982 Return of the Jedi Scout Walker.

Toys from each of the three original films are featured, along with action figures from Episodes I, II and III, released between 1999 and 2005.

The toys will be sold by Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester on Friday, March 16. A full auction catalogue will be available a week before the sale at http://www.mooreallen.co.uk

[…] of many merchandise concepts that were rejected by the Star Wars creators, according to a post by Jason Geyer on Action Figure Insider blog. Geyer and his co-workers initially created the product concepts for the launch of "Star Wars […]

[…] of many merchandise concepts that were rejected by the Star Wars creators, according to a post by Jason Geyer on Action Figure Insider blog. Geyer and his co-workers initially created the product concepts for the launch of “Star Wars […]

[…] of many merchandise concepts that were rejected by the Star Wars creators, according to a post by Jason Geyer on Action Figure Insider blog. Geyer and his co-workers initially created the product concepts for the launch of “Star Wars […]

[…] of many merchandise concepts that were rejected by the Star Wars creators, according to a post by Jason Geyer on Action Figure Insider blog. Geyer and his co-workers initially created the product concepts for the launch of “Star Wars […]

[…] of many merchandise concepts that were rejected by the Star Wars creators, according to a post by Jason Geyer on Action Figure Insider blog. Geyer and his co-workers initially created the product concepts for the launch of “Star Wars […]

[…] Darth Vader salt and pepper shakers?Â He didn’t want those either, according to a post by Jason Geyer on Action Figure Insider blog.Â Geyer and his co-workers were behind the product concepts for the launch of “Star Wars […]

[…] Awhile back a link about Star Wars merchandise crossed my screen. While I love the original trilogy and The Clone Wars series, George Lucas has mostly lost me as a fan. His crassÂ commercialismÂ is a big factor. So it wasÂ surprisingÂ to learn that Lucas and the Star Wars empire hadÂ actuallyÂ rejected a few ideas. […]

Its like you learn my thoughts! You appear to grasp a lot about this, like you wrote the e book in it or something. I believe that you could do with a few p.c. to power the message home a bit, but instead of that, that is magnificent blog. A fantastic read. I’ll certainly be back.

[…] in a Star Wars mood these past few days. I may just break down and write the next chapter of the “Unproduced Star Wars Concepts” saga. To be honest, it’s taken me so long to revisit it because this has been a very busy year at […]

[…] in a Star Wars mood these past few days. I may just break down and write the next chapter of the “Unproduced Star Wars Concepts” saga. To be honest, it’s taken me so long to revisit it because this has been a very busy year at […]